1892 
San Luis 
Potosi 
(S.L.Potosi) 
La Parada 
be heard from morning till late at night and, in many, danoing women 
were seated at the back ready to join with whoever might come in 
danoing on the earthen floor to the music of a harp and one or two 
guitars. 
In one booth a favorite dancer was a woman who glided about in 
time to the music with a bottle of beer balanced upon her head. 
it was crowded until midnight with a host of the poorer classes who 
found great pleasure in these simple amusements. A considerable 
number of policemen were scattered among the throng, but I saw no 
trouble needing their interference in the many visits I made to the 
place * 
*■ 
Outside the booths there were many sellers of fruit and various 
kinds of cooked food, with a liberal sprinkling of men or women with 
a small table and dice-box at which one could gamble a cent at a time. 
betting on the throw of the dice. 
Roulette, faro, and monte were favorite games in the booths. 
The only corn to be had in San Luis, as in most of central Mexico, 
is such as is brought in from the U.S. 
From San Luis I went out to La Parada, an Hacienda some 20 miles 
H.W. of the city where I passed a week and secured a series of desert 
mammals and birds very similar in general character to the desert 
species of the S.W. United States. Larrhea mexioana. Art ernes la mex. . 
Pros op is .luliflora. Agave amerioana. and Acacia, and various oaoti 
and other desert plants characterized the arid barren region as a part 
of the central desert. Wherever water can be utilized for irrigation, 
the soil shows great fertility. On some of the dry land the mescal is 
grown extensively and also up and down in the valley about San Luis it 
108 
